Organizations need to grow; they need to get new customers to survive against the cutthroat competition that the world presents. In IT, the competition is fierce, with a number of startup players springing up. An IT service provider or a product developer can get business by showcasing the skills, products, and processes that the company possesses at their disposal. A proposal is a formal written document which is a powerful tool in presenting and selling your services and products to prospective customers. In this section, I will go through high-level topics on how a business proposal must look and the various topics that make it up.
Let me put it this way. You cannot do away with the formality of developing and presenting business proposals to prospective clients. You might present about a wonderful business idea to a client with a well thought out presentation and corroborated facts. The prospective client could be as eager as a beaver during the presentation, and that could give you the vibes that he is in on your idea. But, it is a fact of business that the client wants to see the thoughts and facts in black and white so he or she can verify, share, think over, and compare at the comfort of their office or home, and not in a conference room.
Let's say in another instance, you didn't get the time to present your product or service to a prospective customer. He asked you to send in a business proposal. Think of this business proposal as a great marketing tool that you could use in presenting the strong points of your products, the achievements of your company, how your company differentiates itself from others in the market, and all the other topics that make your product stand out from the rest. This powerful marketing tool is making your life easy. You are not required to travel to be able to present for this meeting, you are not required to block your time, and most importantly, you can replicate the business proposal to any number of prospective clients. In other words, you can make better work of your time rather than repeating yourself to every client. A powerful business proposal can do it for you instead!
An unstated importance of business proposals is a matter of formality and compliance. Client companies these days like to retain business proposals in their repositories for a number of reasons. It could be that they would like to keep a record of what was promised and what was delivered, their internal processes mandate them to retain all proposals, or certain external certifications could mandate retaining proposals. Government organizations especially need to retain all business proposals—including the ones that they did not entertain for the sake of picking a winner amongst multiple product vendors.
The audience for a business proposal are key decision makers who more often than not will not necessarily be technical people. So, in essence, a business proposal must do away with the jargon, and be drafted with simple everyday language. The writing must conform to all the 7 C's of communication that we discussed in Chapter 2, From Governance to Communication.
Along with the words, adorn your proposal with images and visuals to drive the core message to your audience. Remember that the objective of a proposal is to let your prospective buyer know what you can do for them, and putting this across in a simple, nonconvoluted, and uncomplicated manner does the trick.
Whenever we write, the general format we use is to introduce the topic in the first couple of paragraphs and move into the meat of the topic after and then add the conclusion, which is where the core message is stationed. Now, in a business proposal, you just need to reverse everything. You are trying to sell your services or product to the customer, and the proposal will aid the customer in making an informed decision. So, it is your prerogative to win over the customer at the earliest.
In a proposal, you must begin pitching your products and services from the very first section. Give the customer a good reason to read further. Don't assume that yours is the only proposal that they have to play with; I mentioned the competition earlier, so expect the customer to have a number of proposals on hand for evaluating and making a decision.
Communicate to the customer why your company is the best in line to meet the customer's requirements and highlight your company's strengths and allay fears that they may have regarding your credentials. Let them know about your company, achievements, certifications, clientele list, and customer feedback comments in the first few sections. Keep the mundane stuff like the process, methodology, and price to the second half of the document.
Prospective customers put down their requirements in a document called a Request for Proposal (RFP)—technical, functional, and operational requirements. The document also contains information on who can bid—meaning minimum qualification for companies to enter the bidding process.
Prospective bidders must fully understand the RFP document to be in a position to come with a solution for the customer's requirements and to quote a competitive price for the products or services offered. You need to research the client and correlate the requirements. In many cases, what the customer says they want on a RFP document and what they actually need are two different things.
Extensive research from your end and asking relevant questions to the client will unravel the exact nature of the problem. And, knowing this as accurately as possible is the best tool you can hope for in winning over the contract. It is also recommended that you speak to the client directly to understand the requirements rather than taking the RFP at face value. Also, you may choose to talk to different people in the organization to triangulate on the requirements.
Let's say that you are convinced that you understand your client's problem fully and completely. You will need to build a solution to solve the problem. You need a methodology to help you arrive at the solution. This section is technical in nature, and you must be absolutely sure that the proposed solution works for the client, and it delivers on all its promises. Remember that based on your solution, the costing gets impacted. So, be doubly sure about the solution you are going in for.
There are a number of ways to structure a proposal document. The objective is to catch the interest of the client and to get them interested in the content and your credentials. As I mentioned earlier, I believe in putting the best foot forward and then coming up with the mundane and necessary information.
This is the format I propose:
- Executive summary introducing your company along with the credentials, how your company is best suited to alleviate the client's problem, and how the customer can benefit by partnering with you.
- Summarize the customer's requirements as you understand it. Keep it to the point, as the customer may just be interested in seeing whether you understood the requirements.
- In brief, explain what you are going to do, and how you are going to help the customer in achieving their objectives.
- Provide a detailed methodology; the process you are going to follow and the specifics of the solution that you are going to employ. If you can visualize it with boxes, arrows, shapes, and figures, it enhances the value of the message.
- Provide a staffing plan on the technical experts who would be a part of this project and highlight their credentials. Remember that you are selling, and you need to highlight the assets that you own, and human assets are the most sought after.
- Provide the timelines that you need to achieve the intended output and the associated costs. The costing process must be done transparently and by tagging it directly to the methodology. For example, if you have a ten-step methodology, calculate how many hours you need for every step and factor in the per hour rate to come up with the total cost of the project.
- Garnish the proposal by listing down the benefits of the recommended solution and how you can further improve it. Remember, you are already pitching in for the next in line project as well.
I have included a sample business proposal to bring in the sense of how the theory that I discussed previously looks in flesh and bones. In the strictest sense, the business proposal that I have given next is a sample one. It is extremely rare that a business proposal can be as concise and as simple as the one to follow. It normally ranges upwards of 30-40 pages, and contains a number of sections that I have indicated in the proposal format sub-topic.
In the sample, the IT service company Servicer is trying to pitch to take over Client business services' call center division.
Action Point
Exercise (for students to attempt at the end of this topic followed by a group discussion):
You have been asked to respond to a bid with a business proposal highlighting your achievements and the solution that you have worked out for the customer. It is a consulting project that requires oversight of activities specific to your domain and the length of the project is six months. Prepare a proposal selling your services to the customer, and giving them ample reasons for picking you over the others.